


Lightning

by Aly_H



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Cerberus Clones, Fix-It, Horizon mentions, I am giving them a happy ending, I don't care what bioware says, M/M, Memory Transfer, Shepard lives, Synthesis Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-03
Updated: 2018-09-03
Packaged: 2019-07-06 07:57:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15881844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aly_H/pseuds/Aly_H
Summary: Lightning never strikes twice...or does it?Kaidan Alenko finds himself face to face with his dead lover for the second time in his life.(A fix-it for the Synthesis Ending of ME3.)





	Lightning

**Author's Note:**

> I modded my male Shep to romance Kaidan in ME1 so a few of the lines reflect that.

_Lightning doesn’t strike twice_.

And yet…

Kaidan was staring, he could vaguely hear Liara and Miranda talking but it all sounded disconnected. He struggled in breathe. He felt like he was drowning in the sea of the eyes those eyes.

“John?” he asked, voice wavering.

A hesitant nod, “Hey, Kaidan.”

It was like Horizon all over again. He was aware he was standing, but it still _felt_ like he was falling through the void. London was six months ago. Garrus’s firm grip on his arms being the only thing that kept him from trying to limp after Shepard into the living hell that the Reapers had created.

John was wound tight, hesitant – never wanting to overstep what he was allowed to do. And after Horizon – after being rejected once upon a return from the grave (it said something about their lives that this was the _second_ time Shepard had returned from the dead).

There were differences.

One of his eyes was greener than the other. The synthetic overlays that had faded on most organics a few months after exposure – faded from _view_ , not from existence – had completely overtook one of his irises.

“How?” he looked to Liara for answers.

It was Miranda who hesitated before answering, “Cerberus. There was more than one clone made, just the one you met on the Citadel was the only one woken up. Then I got an alert that this one had…woken up.”

“I don’t remember much,” Shepard murmured, he was still watching Kaidan like he was afraid that the other man would run. “It’s like after Mindoir and falling again…a lot of the more recent past is jumbled up…I remember a few things but not everything. Miranda’s been helping me fill in the gaps.”

Kaidan glanced over to Miranda. She was watching _him_ like a mother varren ready to pounce if he made a wrong move.

He’d only met her a few times, and each time he’d felt jealous of the friendship she and Shepard had.

There was a comradery and trust there born out of fire – he’d heard from Joker and Garrus that they’d spent the first leg of the Collectors mission at each other’s throats. He’d trust Garrus to watch his back any day but that turian couldn’t lie, not even by omission:

What had made Shepard finally trust the Cerberus people he worked with had been Horizon.

Miranda had been there to help pick up the pieces when he’d done what the beacon, Sovereign, and getting spaced hadn’t been able to do: Break Shepard’s heart.

He strongly suspected if he managed to do that twice that Miranda would toss him across Omega with her biotics before he had a chance to react. (Probably with Liara’s blessing, if not her help.)

“But…it’s your memories, but how?”

“The Catalyst…” Shepard frowned at last. “I think it had something to do with when the energy dispersed. When I was…” he set the heel of his palm to his forehead, grimacing suddenly – Miranda tensed, worried.

“It doesn’t matter,” Liara interrupted gently. “What’s important is that you’re here, with us. And you’re you.”

“…not…not the original body, but...it’s me, I just…need a sanity check,” Shepard’s gaze found Kaidan.

At last the Canadian exhaled - letting the tension loose from his shoulders – and he crossed the small room to pull John down into a kiss. He didn’t like having an audience, he never had, but right now, he wasn’t sure he could trust his voice and he needed John to know he wasn’t making the same mistake twice.

Lightning didn’t strike twice…but Shepard had come back.

This time he’d trust his heart.

(If he was grateful that Liara and Miranda were both as intelligent as they were scary and they had opted to leave the room to give them privacy while he and John dissolved into tears and whispers he wasn’t going to admit it aloud – but he was.)

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!


End file.
